Holiday Home Tour: Brienne, Azure B

This Christmas Season we thought it would be fun to do a little holiday home tour to show off some of our favorite vendor friends' fabulous style. We adore Brienne of Azure B Photography, both for her fun personality & also for her classic, chic style. Her timeless design taste is sophisticated & lovely. Just see for yourself! Also, below the photos be sure to enjoy a few words from Brienne herself. She's got some great tips & a great sense of humor too!

-- DETAILS FROM BRIENNE--Ahhhhhhhhhh Christmas.  So fun yet December always seems like a hard month for me to enjoy with everything going on.  So how does anyone have time to make their house lovely and full of the scrumptious season?!   Last year I built a home and moved in the first week of December.  Talk about a doozy - thought I was going to die!  I didn't even want to put up the tree but we did it for the kids.   This year I started fresh so as I unboxed everything I made a keep pile and a DI pile.  I literally DI'd about 90% which is something I would recommend to EVERYONE!  I bought brand new clear sterlite boxes and re-organized all of my remaining decorations with nice labels which I looooooove doing.  In this entire process I got rid of all of my ornaments.  I had planned on buying new ones and as I put up the tree I realized how beautiful it is with nothing on it!  Just the simple beauty of the greenery and lights was enough for me.  For the tree skirt I used two white Ikea throw blankets.  It will eventually get covered in presents so you really don't need to spend much money here.  If you have a cute throw around the house use it!!For the mantle I made a trip to Tai-Pan.  I had set a budget of $100 so I only purchased the greenery/red berries.  I cannot emphasize enough that when you are decorating you don't need to spend a fortune!!  Look around your house and rearrange things, make a trip to the DI, and most importantly concentrate on only one area per year (unless you have all sorts of fun money then go crazy!).  There are several layers of greenery here.  The bottom layer is old crap I had - just a regular pine garland.  I knew I'd be covering it but I wanted to make sure to match the scale of my Christmas decor to the scale of my home - I needed the greenery to be extremely full and luscious so I knew I had to add more greenery than just the stuff I was purchasing.  UNDER SIZING things is the #1 mistake people make when they decorate their home.  Even if your home is small, everything you put in the house needs to fill the space.  Notice the 8 framed pictures and dressers on both sides of the mantle - they fill the space.  As I placed the greenery on the mantle I realized I wanted it to SWAG - SO CUTE - so I hammered in 2 nails and wrapped some floral wire around it to help support everything.  Since it is on the top of my mantle I don't care about 2 little holes - totally worth it!  I also made sure when purchasing the greenery I had enough to go the entire width of my mantle and more - again - scale - which meant I had to buy 2 of everything.The stockings - hung with care - ha ha - are from Restoration Hardware on SALE!  19.99 each and I used a 20% off coupon - love it when that happens!!  They were buried under the greenery so I lengthened them with a little string.  They are hanging from the most GHETTO stocking holders.  They were some old gross ones I had.  I ripped the decorative tops off (which sounds easy but I had to use a hammer and pliers) and spray painted them white to blend in.  Again proving that you don't have to spend money!  Go to the DI and see if you can find some or if you don't mind putting more holes in your mantle use nails.The gold sticks are chopped off of my neighbors tree in the middle of the night so they couldn't see me (haha). Then I spray painted them gold.  I'm getting repetitive but make sure to make them HUGE TALL AND FULL!!!  Scale that baby!!!  I purposely extended them a few inches over my mirror and wanted them to be taller than everything else on the wall.  You don't want everything the same level.  They are sitting in a simple glass vase I had - you can purchase similar ones at Michaels or Hobby Lobby.  The reason I painted them gold is because GOLD is just plain awesome.  Gold is like wearing jewelry but for your home.  Every house needs a pop of gold, especially at Christmas time.The horse (could you die?!) is from Target - $12 on sale - love it.  Mr. Horsey is sitting on books from the DI that I ripped the covers off of.  The candle is an old one I had from Michaels, the candle pillar is from Tai-Pan.My overall design style is a combo of Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn.  I chose to start with my mantle because I think besides the Christmas tree it is by far the most important aspect of Christmas decor - after all - it is the entrance for Mr. Claus!  Use antiques - make a trip to your Grandmas house - go to the DI - doing those things will make your home stand out from the rest!!!Sources:Tree Skirt Throw Blankets:  IkeaStockings:  Restoration HardwareCandle:  MichaelsPillar:  Tai-PanBooks:  DIHorse:  TargetSticks:  a random tree in your neighborhoodGreenery:  Tai-Pan (2 red berry garland, 2 drooping garland, 1 6' pine garland)Photos by Brienne, Azure B Photography